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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23152963">Tethered to the World</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/bearandcrow/pseuds/bearandcrow'>bearandcrow</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Grandmaster of Demonic Cultivation, MDZS, Mo Dao Zu Shi</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>M/M</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-03-15</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-01 11:14:12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>662</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23152963</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/bearandcrow/pseuds/bearandcrow</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Follow-up blip to my fix-it: "Until We are Done." This time, Xiao Xingchen's POV.<br/>Editor credit &amp; thanks to K.V. Moffet.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Sòng Lán | Sòng Zǐchēn/Xiǎo Xīngchén</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>33</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Tethered to the World</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Xiao Xingchen clasped Song Lan's hand and half-followed, half walked beside his partner as they wound their way down the mountain. Early morning winds furled and snapped their robes, flipped Song Lan's hair across his face, or perhaps it was his own, it was difficult to determine.</p><p>Song Lan gave a subtle twist to their hands, a modification to the motion he'd made last night, to include their clasped hands. Song Lan used the motion to apologize. &lt;&lt;Sorry&gt;&gt; For hair blowing in the wind.</p><p>Song Lan had always been quick to temper. And for him, Song Lan had also been quick to apologize. Quick, but for that one time when he hadn't stayed to hear it. That Song Lan apologized now for something so trivial, made him smile, and reinforced that he was not wrong. Reinforced, again, that the cultivator beside him was indeed his heart's mate.</p><p>He hadn't known that he would be so insecure, so fearful of trusting again, until each new and small thing that Song Lan did, that harkened back to their shared past, became a salve on a still mending wound.</p><p>Once he'd become blind, before he'd learned Song Lan's face by touch, he had departed. No. He had run. When the emotional blows had come too fast, too hard, he had fled when he should have stood his ground. Foolish.</p><p>So now he had to rely on other means to verify his changed mate's identity.</p><p>He had known Song Lan's voice and scent, how Song Lan held him, moved with him, and he'd found those and more last night as they'd lain together for the first time in their new realities.</p><p>With his remaining senses, he had also explored the differences. Song Lan had been made into a fierce corpse, and he found himself marveling at his partner's skin, made smoother than before, and cooler than that of a living human. Song Lan's scent was faint now, nearly non-existent, but when he pressed close, like a secret greeting, came the cool scent that was uniquely Song Lan and harkened of snow. "You taste... like you... with a bit of... frost now... but you don't freeze my tongue," he'd teased, words given slowly between licks and nibbles. Song Lan had huffed.</p><p>When they moved together in familiar, heart-mending rhythm, private touches sparked long-lost moans and more.</p><p>Though Song Lan could no longer form words, he retained his voice and revealed it in passion-driven moans. Before his tongue had been cut out, Song Lan had liked to bite, to trap lips and skin and sensitive areas between his teeth, and he did so last night, and--</p><p>He tripped.</p><p>Penance for allowing his mind to wander so far.</p><p>Song Lan turned their gripped hands to counter-balance, to help him recover.</p><p>"?" Song Lan made a querying sound.</p><p>"I'm fine, thank you. I was... inexcusably lost in thought." He touched fingers to his face, felt the heat there. Song Lan could see his flush. He had no delusions that Song Lan's thoughts drifted as relentlessly as his own, to those moments of their interlocked bodies. Song Lan had always been more pure of-</p><p>Song Lan stepped close, moved with inhuman speed, and pulled their bodies together, brushed his hair aside and kissed his bared neck.</p><p>He sucked in a breath, tilted his head, silent request for more. Touches trailed sparks on his skin. <em>More pure of thought?</em> He reconsidered. <em>Perhaps not.</em></p><p>He slid one hand up Song Lan's back, to bury fingers in thick hair. This... this was what had kept him tethered to the world, this man, the only one who could have brought him back. Song Lan was still... Song Lan, and still... his. They belonged one to the other.</p><p>"We have time..." he whispered, sneaking a hand beneath robes, to the cool flesh beneath.</p><p>"Ah," Song Lan agreed.</p><p>There was no need to find a secluded spot on the uninhabited mountain. They coupled where they were.</p><p>Shameless.</p><p>Delicious.</p>
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